Translated by Zhang Weiwei

Guangzhou, September 10, 2009 (Guangzhou Daily): The new semester of SYSU was in session yesterday, eight thousand and thirteen first-year college students would experience the three-semester schooling system for the first time. As the college is implementing its three-semester schooling system, the new semester of SYSU started later than most of the universities in Guangdong Province. Unlike previous years, the four campuses of SYSU had started on the same day this semester; the opening day also reduced from two days to one day.

With the launching of the three-semester schooling system, the students of SYSU will have two long semesters and one short semester. Both the fall semester and the spring semester will last eighteen weeks and the summer semester four and a half weeks. The summer and the winter vacation will stay the same. The military training will be scheduled during the summer semester. After the implementation of the new schooling system, the duration of each class will increase from forty minutes to forty-five minutes. So the actual teaching hours will stay the same.

Taking the visa issues of foreign students into consideration, the School of Chinese as a Second Language will not launch the three-semesters schooling system until the year of 2010.